Sheila Sithole

Sithole was born on 4 February 1948.{{cite magazine |date=20 April 2004 |title=General Notice: Notice 717 of 2004 - Electoral Commission – List of Names of Representatives in the National Assembly and the Nine Provincial Legislatures in Respect of the Elections Held on 14 April 2004 |url=https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/262770.pdf |magazine=Government Gazette of South Africa |location=Pretoria, South Africa |publisher=Government of South Africa |volume=466 |issue=2677 |pages=4–95 |access-date=26 March 2021}} Her father was Mark Shope, a trade unionist and Treason Triallist who went into exile abroad after the ANC was banned in 1960;{{Cite web |date=3 September 2002 |title=Who was Mark Shope? |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/who-was-mark-shope-20020903 |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=News24 |language=en-US}} her younger sister, Ntombi Shope, also became a politician. She was influenced in her adolescence by Ruth First and Sheila Weinberg; according to Sithole, her father introduced her to First, who proclaimed her "a blue stocking" and arranged weekly maths lessons for her with Weinberg.{{Cite web |date=1 June 2010 |title=International Children's Day (Debate) |url=http://www.pa.org.za/hansard/2010/june/01/proceedings-of-the-national-assembly-tuesday-01--2/international-childrens-day-debate |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=People's Assembly |language=en}}

In South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994, Sithole was appointed as chairperson of the Commission on Women in the office of the Premier of Limpopo (then called the Northern Province), Ngoako Ramatlhodi.{{Cite web |date=1995-05-12 |title=The goon squads roll out as premiers battle over borders |url=https://mg.co.za/article/1995-05-12-the-goon-squads-roll-out-as-premiers-battle-over-borders/ |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} She also represented the ANC in the Limpopo Provincial Legislature and was chairperson of the ANC Women's League branch in Bushbuckridge. The latter position led her into conflict with Mathews Phosa, then the Premier of Mpumalanga, because her Women's League branch was affiliated with Limpopo, contrary to Phosa's campaign to incorporate Bushbuckridge into Mpumalanga.{{Cite book |last=Broch-Due |first=Vigdis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=spEo9DGxAJYC&q=sheila+sithole |title=Violence and Belonging: The Quest for Identity in Post-colonial Africa |date=2005 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-29006-7 |pages=101–102 |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Niehaus |first=Isak |date=2002 |title=Ethnicity and the Boundaries of Belonging: Reconfiguring Shangaan Identity in the South African Lowveld |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3518467 |journal=African Affairs |volume=101 |issue=405 |pages=577 |doi=10.1093/afraf/101.405.557 |jstor=3518467 |issn=0001-9909|url-access=subscription }} In a dramatic encounter in August 1994, Phosa arrived in Bushbuckridge in a helicopter to rescue Ramatlhodi and Sithole from protestors who had surrounded them; Sithole's supporters later alleged that Phosa's camp had staged the demonstration and pre-arranged the rescue. In April 1995, Phosa allegedly referred to Sithole and two other ANC members as "mapanyulas" (a Tsonga profanity meaning "animal arsehole") at a rally, and Sithole announced that she would sue him for defamation, seeking R300,000 in damages.

Sithole was not re-elected to the provincial legislature in 1999{{cite magazine |date=11 June 1999 |title=General Notice: Notice 1319 of 1999 – Electoral Commission: Representatives Elected to the Various Legislatures |url=https://gazettes.africa/archive/za/1999/za-government-gazette-dated-1999-06-11-no-20203.pdf |magazine=Government Gazette of South Africa |location=Pretoria, South Africa |publisher=Government of South Africa |volume=408 |issue=20203 |pages= |access-date=26 March 2021}} but returned for another term after the 2004 general election. Thereafter she served two consecutive terms in the National Assembly, gaining election in 2009 and 2014.{{Cite web |title=Sheila Coleen Nkhensani Sithole |url=http://www.pa.org.za/person/sheila-coleen-nkhensani-sithole/ |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=People's Assembly |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Sheila Coleen Nkhensani Shope-Sithole |url=http://www.pa.org.za/person/sheila-coleen-nkhensani-shope-sithole/ |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=People's Assembly |language=en}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{People's Assembly (South Africa)|sheila-coleen-nkhensani-shope-sithole|Ms Sheila Coleen Nkhensani Shope-Sithole}}
• {{People's Assembly (South Africa)|sheila-coleen-nkhensani-sithole|Ms Sheila Coleen Nkhensani Sithole}}

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Category:Living people

Category:1948 births

Category:African National Congress politicians

Category:Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 2009–2014

Category:Women members of the National Assembly of South Africa

Category:Members of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature

Category:21st-century South African women politicians

Category:20th-century South African politicians

Category:20th-century South African women politicians